On Saturday, November 15 our talk will be given by Matt Francis and will be entitled “Food for Thought—The Delicious Chemistry of the Thanksgiving Kitchen”

LOCATION: 159 Mulford Hall, UC Berkeley. TIME: 11am-12pm.

The Wild Turkey: John James Audubon

‘Tis the season for holiday cooking! Come learn the underlying chemical and biochemical processes that lead to perfect roast turkey, thickened gravy, fluffy whipped cream, delicate dinner rolls, and rich chocolate desserts. The preparation of all of these foods requires a set of chemical transformations that occur in carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. This lecture will focus on the ways in which the basic properties of these molecules change during the cooking process, and tips will be discussed for achieving optimal results.

Matt Francis

Matt Francis was born in Ohio in 1971, and received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Miami University in Oxford, OH in 1994. From 1994-1999 he attended graduate school at Harvard University, working in the lab of Prof. Eric Jacobsen. He then moved to UC Berkeley, where he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science. Matt started his independent career in the UC Berkeley Chemistry Department in 2001, and has built a research program involving the development of new organic reactions for protein modification. These new chemical tools have then been used to prepare new biomolecule-based materials for diagnostic imaging, wastewater treatment, and solar cell development. Over the years, Matt has received the Dreyfus Foundation New Faculty Award, an NSF Career Award, and a GlaxoSmithKline Young Investigator Award. He has also received the Departmental Teaching Award on three occasions, the Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and the 2009 University-wide Distinguished Teaching Award. He is currently a Full Professor and the Executive Associate Dean of the Berkeley College of Chemistry. In addition, he is a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

This free public talk is presented as part of the monthly “Science@Cal Lecture Series” Event Contact: scroft@astro.berkeley.edu Webcast: Webcast. Events are recorded and typically made available a few days after the event.